HC451 Hlth Care & the Political Proces

for F1T 2008

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Course Description:HC451 Health Care and the Political Process: Analysis of the process of health policy formation at the federal, state, and local levels from historical and contemporary perspectives. Specific topics will include cost controls, utilization review, methods of changing public and private health policies, and political factors in health care delivery. 3:0:3

Educational Philosophy: The facilitator’s educational philosophy is one of interactiveness based on lectures, readings, quizzes, dialogues, examinations, web sites and writings. The facilitator will engage each learner in what is referred to as disputatious learning to encourage the lively exploration of ideas, issues and contradictions.

Learning Outcomes:Core Learning Outcomes

Explain the role of the political process on health delivery in the United States.

Describe how the political process affects cost of health care, human resources, and various health facilities.

Analyze the key roles of demanders and suppliers of health policies .

Explain the current and future issues in health policy and the role of government in the formulation of health policy.

Interpret the role of specific interests in the health care industry and the effect on health policy decisions and organization and delivery of health care.

Evaluate the roles of local, state, and federal politics on the current and future developments of health care delivery.

Core Assessment:

Class Assessment:

Grading Scale

Class participation will constitute 30% of your course grade. This includes homework assignments, article summaries, and discussions. You should post your own answer to the DQs by Wed at 11:59 pm. You must then post at least 2 substantial responses (3 is best) to other student posts. Each response should be about 200-300 words. Quality matters just as much as quantity does. Here's a tip on how to post 'substantially.'

The three most important grading criteria for your work will be breadth, depth, and application of course concepts.

Breadth (B): Refers to the "number" of chapter and lecture concepts that you have applied to the homework questions, discussion, and report.

Depth (D): Refers to the degree you provide "detailed" analyses to the homework questions, discussion, and report.

Application (A): Refers to the chapter and lecture concepts you "apply" to your homework questions, discussion, and report. You can accomplish this by referencing page numbers, concepts such as data collection methods, etc.

A midterm exam and a final exam will be given on the textbook readings. Each will constitute 20% of your course grade.

The term paper presented in prescribed format will constitute 20% of your course grade, and is expected to be approximately ten to fifteen double spaced pages in length not including the reference and title pages.

Grading:

Participation 30%

Final Paper 20%

Midterm Exam 20%

Article Summaries 10%

Final Exam 20%

Park University grades are as follows:

A= 90- 100%
B = 80-89%
C = 70-79%
D = 60-69%
F = < 60%

The course grade for students will be based on the overall average of homework and tests taken during the course in accordance with the weighting of the various requirements as stated in the syllabus.

All final exams in all School of Business and Management courses will be comprehensive and will be closed book and closed notes. They will constitute 30% of the total course grade and will not be a take-home exam. They will be completed during the test week in the period designated by the registrar or by the Proctor in the case online courses. If calculators are allowed, they will not be multifunctional electronic devices that include features such as: phones, cameras, instant messaging, pagers, and so forth. Electronic Computers will not be allowed on final exams unless an exception is made by the Dean of the School of Business and Management.

Late Submission of Course Materials:

There are only 3 acceptable reasons for late submission, and all require documentation to me:

1. Death in the immediate family

2. Illness preventing you from completing your work

3. Power failures

Unless there are special circumstances discussed ahead of time with the instructor, grades for late work are deducted 20% each day for up to three days past the due date. After five days the work will not receive any credit.

Classroom Rules of Conduct:

This course is offered on-line, over the Internet, using the ECollege computer service. Each students is expected to devote a minimum of five hours per class week logged on to the computer conferencing system. This is same amount of time you'd spend in the physical classroom. See "Ground Rules for On-line Participation" for additional information.

According to Park University guidelines, this course is divided into eight weeks with the first week beginning on the first day of the semester, a Monday, and ends midnight the following Sunday. Weeks Two through Eight also begin on Monday and end on the following Sunday. Assignments scheduled for completion during a class week should be completed by the end of the week assigned, Writing assignments and formal papers should be completed and successfully emailed so that they are in by the due date.

Ground Rules for On-line Participation:

Students should use Pirate E-Mail for private messages to the instructor and other students. The Class Conference is for public messages.

Students are expected to complete 5 hours per week of conferencing or other appropriate online activities, including sending/receiving E-mail and navigating and conducting research over the World Wide Web.

KEEP A COPY of all course work you submit until the end of the term.

All students will participate in conference discussion. Conventions of "on-line etiquette," which include courtesy to all users, will be observed.

If you need assistance please contact me.

Students will normally submit papers as MS Word uploaded to the computer and routed to the instructor or emailed. Please do not use any MS Works format. Overall it works well to copy your assignments from you word processing program and paste it into the e-mail.

Each student is responsible for clicking on the link below and thoroughly reading each online course policy. If you have any questions about any of these policies, please contact me for clarification.

Homework: Complete the final draft of your term paper and submit it to the dropbox area for grading by the instructor by Sunday of the eighth week.

Article Summaries

You will be writing a paper specifically related to the issues surrounding a health policy that will be discussed in your term paper. These are basically reaction papers to articles that you will need to locate for your term paper. The summary should be about a different aspect of your approved topic for your term paper. Article Summaries and the original article should be submitted into the dropbox area for grading. Guidelines for completion of the article summary are as follows:

1. Locate a current article that examines a health issue topic that is relevant to the role of the political process on health care delivery in the United States. (A Website is not an acceptable resource, BUT journal articles found on the Internet are). Articles can be found at your local library, a college library, or from Internet sources. The article must show a correlation between the health issue and concepts discussed in your textbook. Textbooks are not an acceptable resource for this assignment.

2. Write a two-three page paper that includes the following components:

a. A summary of the article in your own words: DO NOT COPY from the article!

b. Your own personal reaction to the article: What did you learn? What did you think of the information provided?

c. Your analysis of how the article demonstrates a correlation between what we have been discussing in class (and in the text and lecture materials) about an issue.

In other words: What aspects of the article demonstrate how this particular policy issue impacts health practices, structure of, government role in, and financing of health care? What is the role of interest groups, organizations in the formation or modification of the health policy issue?

3. Submit the summary along with the copy of the article by the due date listed by Midnight on Sunday night of this week. Papers should be submitted to the drop box area.

Midterm & Final Exams
A midterm exam and a final exam will be given over the course readings, and will each constitute 20% of your course grade.

The term paper presented in prescribed format will constitute 20% of your course grade, and is expected to be approximately ten to fifteen double spaced pages in length not including the reference and title pages.

Term paper: Write a paper about a current issue in health care that is currently being addressed in the process of health policymaking. Include in the paper:

1) The role of the political process on health care delivery

2) The roles of the demanders and suppliers of health policies

3) How the political process affects cost of health care, human resources, and various health care facilities.

4) Explain how the various levels of government are involved in the political process and its effect on health care delivery

5) Describe involvement of interest groups and organizations in addressing the issues to sway modifications to the policy and/or formation of the policy.

6) Describe any strategies and recommendations made to resolve this current issue. Include any specific interests in the health care industry that would have an effect on health policy decisions.

7)Finally, discuss how this current issue could affect future initiatives in health care delivery.

GRADING OF PAPER:

20 Points

Title Page: 1 points
Introduction of Topic: 3 points

Body of Term Paper includes:

a) Role of political process on health care delivery: 2 points
b) Roles of the demanders and suppliers of health policy: 2 points
c) Description of how the political process affects costs of health care, human resources, and various health care facilities: 2 points
d) Explanation of how the various levels of government are involved in the issue and its effect on health care delivery: 2 points
e) Describe involvement of interest groups and organizations in addressing the topic: 2 points

Strategies and Recommendations for addressing healthcare issue: 3 points
Effect of current issue on future initiatives in healthcare delivery: 3 points
Sources of information in body of paper are cited using APA style format: 2 points

Reference Page: 1 points

TOTAL POINTS: 20 points

Topics should be selected="true" and approved by the end of Week One, but not later than the end of Week Two.

The entire term paper will be submitted at the end of Week Eight, for grading.

The final exam must be completed and submitted Saturday of Week Eight by Midnight. Please check your calendar dates and arrange to complete the final accordingly.

Academic Honesty:Academic integrity is the foundation of the academic community. Because each student has the primary responsibility for being academically honest, students are advised to read and understand all sections of this policy relating to standards of conduct and academic life. Park University 2008-2009 Undergraduate Catalog Page 87

Plagiarism:Plagiarism involves the use of quotations without quotation marks, the use of quotations without indication of the source, the use of another's idea without acknowledging the source, the submission of a paper, laboratory report, project, or class assignment (any portion of such) prepared by another person, or incorrect paraphrasing. Park University 2008-2009 Undergraduate Catalog Page 87

The instructor may excuse absences for valid reasons, but missed work must be made up within the semester/term of enrollment.

Work missed through unexcused absences must also be made up within the semester/term of enrollment, but unexcused absences may carry further penalties.

In the event of two consecutive weeks of unexcused absences in a semester/term of enrollment, the student will be administratively withdrawn, resulting in a grade of "F".

A "Contract for Incomplete" will not be issued to a student who has unexcused or excessive absences recorded for a course.

Students receiving Military Tuition Assistance or Veterans Administration educational benefits must not exceed three unexcused absences in the semester/term of enrollment. Excessive absences will be reported to the appropriate agency and may result in a monetary penalty to the student.

Report of a "F" grade (attendance or academic) resulting from excessive absence for those students who are receiving financial assistance from agencies not mentioned in item 5 above will be reported to the appropriate agency.

ONLINE NOTE: An attendance report of "P" (present) will be recorded for students who have logged in to the Online classroom at least once during each week of the term. Recording of attendance is not equivalent to participation. Participation grades will be assigned by each instructor according to the criteria in the Grading Policy section of the syllabus.

Disability Guidelines:Park University is committed to meeting the needs of all students that meet the criteria for special assistance. These guidelines are designed to supply directions to students concerning the information necessary to accomplish this goal. It is Park University's policy to comply fully with federal and state law, including Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, regarding students with disabilities. In the case of any inconsistency between these guidelines and federal and/or state law, the provisions of the law will apply. Additional information concerning Park University's policies and procedures related to disability can be found on the Park University web page: http://www.park.edu/disability .

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